The Hobbit (Middle Earth, #0)

by J.R.R. Tolkien

Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.

Okay, I’ll blaspheme for a moment here: This is a case where the film is actually better than the book. I often run into the frustration of explaining beautiful sounds in prose. You can use whatever colorful language you want but, in the end, the reader just doesn’t get to hear it. So in the film, we were treated to a moving, dirge-like song from the dwarves and it was fantastic. Still, Tolkien was a master of this. The song moves Bilbo so much he envisions himself an adventurer and has a sudden desire to explore and fight evil foes – the complete opposite of his normal personality. The feeling passes as quickly as it came but it is a great way to demonstrate how powerful the song is.